What does the "Castle Park Family" do when someone speaks out about problems?

Photo: Chula Vista Educators President
Peg Myers














The morning after the May 27, 2008 meeting at Castle Park Elementary, one of the parents who spoke out at the meeting took her children in to the school, and came back to find that someone had thrown cereal and milk on her car.

Children are not normally allowed to leave the school cafeteria with milk and cereal, where breakfast was being served at the time of the vandalism. At least one adult who is connected to the "Family" was in the cafeteria.

What interest would a child have in someone else's mother who spoke at a meeting? The speaker's own children are too young to come to the attention of kids old enough to pull a stunt like this.

But several staff members and teachers at Castle Park Elementary have demonstrated out-of-control hostility in recent years, attacking fellow teachers and principals with shocking malice. The current leader of the Castle Park Family is Peg Myers, the president of Chula Vista Educators. Two of the last three CVE presidents (Peg Myers and Gina Boyd) have come to the CVE presidency directly from Castle Park Elementary, and the other one, Jim Groth, aided the cover-up of wrongdoing at the school.

Note to Superintendent Lowell Billings: It's time to end this before somebody gets hurt. It's impossible for anyone to bring order to Castle Park Elementary when the "Family" has so much invested in keeping the truth hidden. Come to the school and deal with the truth. Don't go looking for some unfortunate person to sit in the vacant principal's office. You should serve as principal of Castle Park Elementary until order is restored.

What is going on with CVESD board member Patrick Judd?

UPDATE: This question was finally answered HERE.

I'm wondering why so many people are doing searches for Pat Judd, the recent Mountain Empire School District superintendent who retired under mysterious circumstances.

My access logs tell me the most common searches that bring people to my website and blogs, and "Pat Judd" is right up there at the top, along with "CTA lawyers" and "Cheryl Cox" and a few others.

I assume that many of the searches are related to Sue Sherbondy's lawsuit against Judd. (Her allegations may have played a part in his leaving Mountain Empire.)

But that doesn't explain all the searches by Los Angeles Unified School District. Has Judd applied for a job in Los Angeles?

The upside of a Judd move to Los Angeles would be that he would have to resign from the CVESD board. But I'm saddened by the thought that LAUSD might not be able to find someone better. On the other hand, perhaps Judd is exactly what they want. After all, they have a reputation to live up to: a graduation rate for Latino males below 30%. For that, you need someone who likes to make life miserable for those who are different from himself.

CVESD tries to keep Castle Park Elementary parents off-balance

On May 27, 2008 Castle Park Elementary parents spoke of their frustration with CVESD's plans to lay off low seniority teachers while protecting hostile veteran teachers who were causing problems for children.

I listened as two different groups of parents announced concern to district represenative Leonard Hernandez. (Each of five tables in the Castle Park auditorium served approximately ten parents who formed a group; one member of each group announced the group's conclusions.)

I wondered why it was that Dr. Leonard Hernandez kept listening to these worries without telling parents the truth: the layoffs had been ruled out 5 days earlier.

I had read the news in Voice of San Diego:


"Chula Vista Teachers Saved"
by EMILY ALPERT
May 22, 2008
"Chula Vista Elementary School District plans to cancel layoffs of all 274 educators who were slated to be terminated due to state budget cuts...the district faces a $7.5 million cut -- $3.5 million smaller than originally expected, said district spokesman Anthony Millican."

I began to wonder if the pink slips were a way to intimidate teachers and take parents' minds off their other concerns about school performance in Chula Vista.

I raised my hand and told Dr. Hernandez that the parents apparently didn't know that the pink slips were a thing of the past.

Hernandez immediately developed an urge to share the good news with the crowd. The parents applauded vigorously.

I wonder what the district won't do to keep parents from knowing what is really going on at some schools?

On May 30, 2008 another interesting article appeared in Voice of San Diego. Emily Alpert wrote about one teacher who had already accepted a job in the technology sector before his layoff was reversed.

People who can get better jobs are perhaps not the teachers we want to lose. I think we need a two-tiered teacher work force, master teachers and regular teachers. The master teachers should have more responsibility and be better paid, and not be among the first to be laid off.

Quotes from VOSD article:

..."It's a crazy way of doing business," said Anthony Millican, spokesman for the Chula Vista Elementary School District, which cancelled 274 planned layoffs for classroom teachers, but is still planning to slash more than 140 other positions. Its budget gap narrowed somewhat, from $11 million to $7.5 million, based on Schwarzenegger's revision...

Chula Vista Elementary School District spent about $40,000 on substitute teachers during a two-day hearing, said Millican. Like San Diego Unified, its legal costs have not yet been totaled. The school district hired the firm Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo, whose partners and senior associates charge $210 an hour.

Dr. Leonard Hernandez continues CVESD's policy of hiding Castle Park Elementary secrets

On May 27, 2008 Dr. Leonard Hernandez from the CVESD office asked a group of about fifty Castle Park Elementary parents what kind of person they wanted as their twelfth principal in under fifteen years, and then told them that the district would make a decision within about two weeks.

He told parents he didn't want to discuss why yet another principal is leaving Castle Park.

He also didn't want to discuss the group of teachers that holds power at the school. Of the five teachers that the district transferred from the school in 2004, one has returned (Nikki Perez), and others exert great influence from outside the school, particularly from the teachers union office (Chula Vista Educators).

The teachers who control the school call themselves the "Castle Park Family," and they have been able to call the shots at the district office for seven years now.

After the district and its lawyers (Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz) made the serious mistake in 2001 of covering up crimes committed by some of these teachers, the district ended up paying $100,000s of dollars to the lawyers.

Then the district found, to its surprise, that the teachers were not grateful at all. Instead, the teachers were determined to keep calling the shots, making it impossible for the district to transfer trouble-making teachers out of Castle Park Elementary.

I believe that Castle Park Elementary (which I attended in the fifties, and worked at from 1997-2001) will never return to normal function until the district engages in some open and honest discussion, modeled on South Africa's "truth and reconciliation" committees.

The district and Castle Park Elementary teachers should quit hiding the crimes and other wrongdoing, say they're sorry for the harm done, and start some honest discussions about human decency and appropriate professional behavior for teachers. Then instead of worrying about how to keep their secrets hidden (as Dr. Leonard Hernandez demanded at the meeting), they could put all that energy into helping children become healthy, strong, honest, law-abiding, well-educated citizens.

Felicia Starr, former school board candidate, involved once again in Castle Park Elementary principal attack

Felicia Starr (in pink sweatshirt), former CVESD board candidate, Chula Vista ethics committee member, Castle Park Elementary PTA president and site council chairperson who worked closely with Kim Simmons to attack the previous principal Ollie Matos in 2004, showed up at the meeting on May 27, 2008 at which parents discussed the traits they wished to find in their next principal.

Many of the approximately 50 parents at the meeting told district representative Dr. Leonard Hernandez that they want someone just like Carlos Ulloa, the current principal (who will be leaving next month).

But Felicia Starr and the "Castle Park Family" (a group of teachers and union honchos who have chewed up and spit out one principal after another for the past fifteen years, and forced many excellent teachers to leave, as well) made it impossible for Carlos Ulloa to stay.

Cheryl Cox has to keep CVESD's secrets for 18 more years to beat this record

I really thought that Cheryl Cox, Pamela Smith and Bertha Lopez, board members of Chula Vista Elementary School District, would do the right thing in my case. I didn't expect much from Patrick "Pat" Judd and Larry Cunningham. But I was wrong. The three women were as bad as the men. They all paid $100,000s of taxpayer money to Stutz, Artiano Shinoff & Holtz to cover up wrongdoing at Castle Park Elementary. They knew that this required intimidating witnesses and pressuring employees to commit perjury.

All I lost was a job--at a sick school. I've watched as my fellow teachers have become more ill over the past seven years. I was not the only one harmed. The teachers who told falsehoods under oath, and the teachers who were silent, were harmed, too. But the kids were hurt even more.

Alton Logan (story below) was damaged by the same kind of people who damaged Castle Park Elementary. People who present false testimony to a court, and tell the public, as Cheryl Cox did, that their life is "an open book." The truth is 180 degrees to the contrary.

If I had been in the shoes of these two lawyers who kept the secret of Alton Logan's innocence, I believe I would have come forward with the truth, and risked being disbarred. But then, I'm not a lawyer. I think 90% of lawyers have lost their sense of right and wrong, which is why our justice system so frequently helps the guilty and punishes the innocent.

26-Year Secret Kept Innocent Man In Prison
May 25, 2008
60 Minutes (CBS)
Lawyers Keep 26-Year Secret

...This is a story about an innocent man who languished in prison for 26 years while two attorneys who knew he was innocent stayed silent...

Alton Logan was convicted of killing a security guard at a McDonald's in Chicago in 1982. Police arrested him after a tip and got three eyewitnesses to identify him. Logan, his mother and brother all testified he was at home asleep when the murder occurred. But a jury found him guilty of first degree murder...

Alton Logan's story cuts to the core of America's justice system.

Simon met Alton Logan in prison, where he's spent almost half of his life.

Asked if he still counts the months and days, Logan told Simon, "There’s no need to count the months and the days. Just count the years."

Logan said that during the first five or six years he was "consumed" by anger. "Then I come to the realization that 'Why be angry over something you can't control?'"

Logan, who maintains he didn't commit the murder, thought they were "crazy" when he was arrested for the crime.

Attorneys Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz knew Logan had good reason to think that, because they knew he was innocent. And they knew that because their client, Andrew Wilson, who they were defending for killing two policemen, confessed to them that he had also killed the security guard at McDonald's - the crime Logan was charged with.

"We got information that Wilson was the guy and not Alton Logan. So we went over to the jail immediately almost and said, 'Is that true? Was that you?' And he said, 'Yep it was me,'" Kunz recalled.

"He just about hugged himself and smiled. I mean he was kind of gleeful about it...

"How did you interpret that response?" Simon asked.

"That it was true and that he was tickled pink," Kunz said.

"He was pleased that the wrong guy had been charged...

"Well, ...we have to maintain client confidentiality, just as a priest would or a doctor would...

Asked if they contemplated doing something about it, Coventry told Simon, "We wrote out an affidavit. We made an affidavit that we had gotten information through privileged sources, that Alton Logan was not in fact guilty of killing the officer, that in fact somebody else did it..."

"But the minute he was not sentenced to death, the minute he was sentenced to life in prison, you decided to do nothing?" Simon asked.

"Yes," Kunz said. "I can't explain it. I don't know why that made the difference but I know it did."

"There is no difference between life in prison and a death penalty. None whatsoever. Both are a sentence of death," Logan told Simon...

(CBS) "What did you do to see if there might be some loophole to get everyone out of this fix?" Simon asked the attorneys.

"I researched the ethics of attorney-client privilege as much as I could. I contacted people who are involved in making those determinations. I know Jamie did the same thing," Coventry said.

"I could not figure out a way, and still cannot figure out a way, how we could have done anything to help Alton Logan that would not have put Andrew Wilson in jeopardy of another capital case," Kunz added.

"Couldn’t you have leaked it to somebody? To a reporter, to an administrator, to the governor, to somebody?" Simon asked.

"The only thing we could have leaked is that Andrew Wilson confessed to us. And how could we leak that to anybody without putting him in jeopardy?" Kunz replied. "It may cause us to lose some sleep. But, but I lose more sleep if I put Andrew Wilson’s neck in the in the noose."

"He was guilty and Logan was not. So, yes his head should be in the noose. And Logan should go free. It's perfectly obvious to somebody who isn’t a lawyer," Simon pointed out. "Andrew Wilson was guilty, was he not?"

"Yes. And that's up to the system to decide. It's not up to me as his lawyer to decide that he was guilty and so he should be punished and Logan should go free," Kunz said.

"Do you think you might have been disbarred for doing that, for violating attorney-client privilege?" Simon asked.

"I don't think I considered that as much as I considered my responsibility to my client. I was very concerned to protect him," Coventry explained.

"But here is a case where two men, you two were caught up in this bind. And chose to let a man rot away in jail," Simon remarked.

"In terms of my conscience, my conscience is that I did the right thing. Do I feel bad about Logan? Absolutely I feel bad about Logan," Coventry admitted.

The attorneys say they were so tormented over Logan's imprisonment that they convinced Wilson to let them reveal that Wilson was the real killer after Wilson's death. Late last year, Wilson died. The two attorneys finally took their affidavit out of the lockbox, and they called Logan's lawyer, pubic defender Harold Winston.

Winston had already been trying to get Logan a new trial. He'd found two eyewitnesses who swore Logan was not the killer. Now, with Kunz and Coventry's affidavit, he thinks Logan will finally go free.

[Blogger's note: From what I've seen and read over the years, prosecutors hate to admit they've prosecuted an innocent person. More often than not, they prefer to let the innocent rot in jail.]

"...Everything that was dear to me is gone," Logan, who missed his mother's funeral, told Simon.

His brothers Eugene and Tony told 60 Minutes they've shared Alton's pain, and they always knew that he was no killer. "My brother ain’t got the nature to do nothin' like that in his soul. He ain’t gonna take nobody else's life. We weren't raised like that," Tony said.

"Your brother is 54 now. Can he start again at the age of 54?" Simon asked...

But Alton Logan is still behind bars. "They are quick to convict but they are slow to correct they mistakes," he said...




Cheryl Cox's prosecutor pal Bonnie Dumanis is one of the prosecutors Alton Logan was talking about when he said they are slow to correct mistakes:

Marine Wife Murder Case Still Active
05-30-2008
Cox Communications

(San Diego, CA) -- A judge ruled he still has the authority to completely dismiss the case of Cynthia Sommer who was found guilty of killing her husband and spent a few years in jail, but later had the charges dismissed "without Prejudice". Judge John Einhorn says he may dismiss the case "with prejudice" which means the case could not be re filed, "without" means the prosecution could re file murder charges against Sommers who was alleged to have poisoned her husband in 2002.

Chula Vista Teachers Saved

Chula Vista teachers have been saved from Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget cuts. But who will save them from their union, Chula Vista Educators?

Voice of San Diego
EMILY ALPERT
Thursday, May 22 2008

Chula Vista Elementary School District plans to cancel layoffs of all 274 educators who were slated to be terminated due to state budget cuts. Under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's revised budget proposal, the district faces a $7.5 million cut -- $3.5 million smaller than originally expected, said district spokesman Anthony Millican...
There are no current plans to reverse layoffs for other employees, he said...

Ethics Complaint Forbidden Against CVE President

Why is the root of Chula Vista Educators' constant problems? Possibly the main cause of strife is the result of CTA lawyers helping CVE leaders to stifle complaints.

CTA lawyers help the presidents and executive directors of local affiliates to silence complaints--in Long Beach and Chula Vista, and in other school districts in California.

When the CTA-chosen executive director of the Teachers Association of Long Beach, Scott McVarish, misused funds in 2007, CTA wouldn't let the TALB board of directors fire him. Instead, CTA paid for a lawyer to defend him when he slandered one of the directors.

Finally CTA realized too much money was being lost, but instead of turning over power to the directors, it took over the union itself and gave control to ex-CTA president Barbara Kerr.

The directors have filed suit to get their union back.

This all familiar to those of us who know about the actions of Barbara Kerr and CTA head counsel Beverly Tucker in Chula Vista Elementary School District.

Tim O'Neill the executive director chosen by CTA for South County Teachers United (CTA), informed Chula Vista Educators member Maura Larkins in December 2002 that she was forbidden from making a complaint to her union affiliate Board of Directors or Representative Council about unethical behavior on the part of the president. Why was she forbidden? Because president Gina Boyd herself refused to allow a complaint to be made about her.

You can't expect much in the way of ethics from an organization like this.

An open letter to CTA head counsel Beverly Tucker's sidekick at the CTA Santa Fe Springs legal office

Hi Mike:
I just noticed that someone hacked my CTA webpage that had the quote of you saying that you and the rest of the public don't care if my due process rights were violated.

You shouldn't be any more ashamed of your attitude than Beverly Tucker or Carolyn Doggett or the officers of CTA should be ashamed of their attitudes. I hope they aren't making you feel bad about it. They should be nothing but grateful to you for doing what they paid you to do.

Ironically, your hostility was actually a measure of your humanity.

You couldn't have done the job that you were assigned to do if you hadn't dehumanized me. You had to believe that I didn't deserve the protection of the law or my union. You had to believe this, or it would have been impossible for you to help your clients get away with their multiple crimes against me. So hold your head up high when you are in the presence of CTA bigwigs--or 90% of lawyers. You might, however, want to bow your head in the presence of children.

Maura Larkins

P.S. You shouldn't be any more ashamed than Chula Vista Educators (CVE) officers Gina Boyd, Tim O'Neill, Jim Groth, or Peggie (Peg) Myers.

Greg Cox fails to address question of how the Steve Castaneda case was initiated--and why the investigation of Cheryl Cox wasn't.

Bob Castaneda, the brother of Chula Vista Councilman Steve Castaneda, raised important questions about the two prosecutions carried out by the San Diego District Attorney's Public Integrity Unit.

Bonnie Dumanis appointed Peter O'Toole to bring in two political opponents of Chula Vista mayor Cheryl Cox for questioning. Both of them were charged with lying during these odd investigations. How did these investigations get initiated? Why were two men prosecuted for felony perjury even though the investigations uncovered no crimes?

Why has a complaint about Cheryl Cox and her agents at Chula Vista Elementary School District been ignored by this "Public Integrity Unit"?

Supervisor Greg Cox has written a letter that does absolutely nothing to answer the questions that have been raised. Of course Cox protests that he has done nothing wrong. But how will he restore the credibility of the District Attorney's office? He makes no effort to do so.

My website has a comparison of the letters by Bob Castaneda and Greg Cox.

The question remains: was the PIU tipster a friend of Cheryl and Greg Cox?

The answer seems sort of obvious, doesn't it?

Chula Vista Educators is no longer missing in action

Chula Vista Educators has long been oddly silent on the Internet. But that has changed. CVE has unveiled a new website at chulavistaeducators.com.

Apparently, secrecy is a thing of the past for CVE president Peg Myers and her loyal supporters Jim Groth, longtime accomplice Joyce Abrams, the perennially faithful Monica Sorenson, and the rest.

They have published the results of the last election, revealing exactly how many people voted, and who got the votes. NO, JUST KIDDING ABOUT THIS LAST BIT.

But seriously, I will continue to post news on this blog and on this website.

Otay Elementary is off the watchlist!

Principal reveals steps to success
By David Berlin
May 1, 2008
San Diego Union Tribune

This year, Otay Elementary was one of three schools in Chula Vista to come off the "program improvement" list, a watch list for schools that fail to meet federal testing requirements two years in a row.

Otay Elementary School Principal Francisco Velasco is all about the numbers...

To Velasco, the numbers represent his students and the charts show exactly how the school in southwest Chula Vista is making the grade...

Otay Elementary also received a California Association for Bilingual Education award for excellence...
Seventy percent of students at Otay speak another language at home and are learning English at school.

“It's a huge challenge because we start testing in second grade and those kids will take the test in English,” Velasco said.

“So you have to provide some sort of transition program that fast-tracks English. Studies have shown that it takes five, six, seven years to be able to acquire that language and to be able to really function at a good level. But we don't have that much time.”

...Every hour of every school day at Otay Elementary is spent teaching basic English and other skills like reading and math. That means no music class, no art class and no gym class, which instead are offered as after-school clubs.


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20080501-9999-1sz1otay.html

Patrick O'Toole needs to prosecute serious perjury offenses

Tanya Mannes of the San Diego Union Tribune wrote on June 20, 2007:

"Patrick O'Toole, a Public Integrity Unit prosecutor, spent months investigating Jason Moore, who had been an aide to former [Chula Vista] Mayor Steve Padilla... He concluded that Moore ultimately took the two hours off. But he believed Moore lied about the timing of when he turned in a request for personal leave... Yesterday, Moore, 36, pleaded guilty to one count of contempt of court, a misdemeanor."

“People can't come into the grand jury, swear to tell the truth, and then lie,” O'Toole said.

Well, yes. And they can't obstruct justice, suborn perjury, falsify court documents, or violate the Labor Code. But that is exactly what current Chula Vista mayor Cheryl Cox has done.

Which makes it all the stranger that Bonnie Dumanis has refused to investigate Richard Werlin and other Chula Vista Elementary School District figures who have sworn to tell the truth, and then lied--about more important issues than two hours off work.

Ironically, Moore was accused of taking two hours off work to spy on Cheryl Cox and David Malcolm at a Cox fundraiser. The irony is particularly heavy in this case because Cheryl Cox herself pressured a whole slew of public employees at Chula Vista Elementary School District to commit perjury. Much of the perjury was done to cover up falsification of documents, which Cheryl Cox, Patrick Judd, Larry Cunningham, Pamela Smith and Bertha Lopez made necessary when they voted to cover up crimes by dismissing a teacher. The dismissal was itself a violation of Labor Code section 1102.5

The Chula Vista Elementary School District board chose lawyers, Parham & Rajcic, and Stutz, Artiano Shinoff & Holtz, who could be depended upon to use illegal tactics to cover up the board's wrondoing. Obstruction of justice is all in a day's work for these law firms.

The fact that Cheryl Cox has more power now than when she was a CVESD board member makes it all the more important that she be answerable for her crimes.

Steve Castaneda found not guilty, is reelected

ELECTION UPDATE
NOVEMBER 5, 2008

STEVE CASTANEDA

Steve Castaneda has been reelected as Chula Vista City Councilman, but Patrick O'Toole has disappeared from the Public Integrity Unit.

CITY OF CHULA VISTA CITY COUNCIL - SEAT NO. 4
Precincts Reporting: 100.0%
SCOTT VINSON - 46.88% (24876)
STEVE CASTANEDA - 53.12% (28183)




ORIGINAL POST:

After the jury came back with a "not guilty" verdict yesterday in the case of Chula Vista city councilman Steve Castaneda, who was accused of hiding his "intent" to buy a condo while testifying during a grand jury investigation that found no wrongdoing, prosecutor Patrick O'Toole said, "It was a case from our end that we thought had to be brought -- that the obligation to tell the truth under oath is one that we're going to fight for."

I've been waiting for a long time to hear someone in Bonnie Dumanis' office say "the obligation to tell the truth under oath is one that we're going to fight for."

I'm pleased to hear that O'Toole is finally going to do something about Chula Vista Elementary School District trustees and administrators who obstructed justice and committed or suborned perjury. The District Attorney received my complaint in 2005.

Here is the story from Fox News:

Councilman Found Not Guilty of Perjury in Condo Charges
Last Update: 4/23/2008

A Chula Vista city councilman accused of lying to the county grand jury regarding his personal interest in an apartment complex that was being converted into condominiums was acquitted Wednesday of six of 10 perjury counts.

Prosecutors will decide later whether to retry Steve Castaneda on the remaining four counts on which jurors deadlocked.

"I'm very happy that I'm vindicated. I'm very happy about the fact that I can now go on with my life," Castaneda told reporters outside the courtroom.

Defense attorney Marc Carlos said jurors gave it their best shot -- deliberating for five days after a two-week trial -- before coming to a decision.

"They've had hundreds of exhibits and thousands of pages of grand jury testimony, and that's as good as they can do and there's nothing there," Carlos told reporters. "I think (District Attorney) Bonnie Dumanis should do the right thing and step up and dismiss the remaining counts. They've spent a lot of money on this case and it's gone nowhere."

Prosecutor Patrick O'Toole said: "It was a difficult case. Everybody knew that going in. It was a case from our end that we thought had to be brought -- that the obligation to tell the truth under oath is one that we're going to fight for."

[Blogger's note: This is apparently Mr. O'Toole's way of saying, "If we want to go after someone for political reasons, a perjury charge is a perfect way to do it. You can always say someone is lying, no matter what the facts are. Hardly anyone gets charged with perjury even when they do it in a case where a crime has been committed, but, hey, the law is there so why shouldn't I have some fun with it?"]

10,000 years of Chula Vista History by one of our favorite educators

Click HERE for original story about one of our Chula Vista educators.

Peter Watry, Hero in Education

On July 31, 2004, Bill Brochtrup presented Peter Watry, a retired economics professor, with the California Lottery's “Heroes in Education” award on “The Big Spin®” show.

A year ago, Watry created a presentation, entitled “10,000 Years of Chula Vista History,” for local students. Several times each week, he delivers this presentation to third and fourth graders throughout the Chula Vista School District.

At these presentations, Watry teaches the students about the diversity in the people who have called Chula Vista home over the years, and describes, in great detail, what life must have been like for each of them. Watry captivates the students with the assortment of visual aids that bring history lessons to life. He shows the students artwork and pictures, and allows them to handle historic artifacts like Indian arrowheads, hats and flags. At the end of each visit, he reminds the students that Chula Vista is constantly evolving and that they should appreciate the history being made around them every day.

On hand to honor Watry was Bill Brochtrup who has starred in such television shows as Dharma & Greg, Murder She Wrote and Picket Fences. Brochtrup is best known for playing the extremely efficient public administrative assistant, John Irvin, on the popular television series NYPD Blue.

The California Lottery’s “Heroes in Education” award has been presented monthly on “The Big Spin®” show, since 1999. The Lottery partners with celebrities to present these awards which recognize special individuals who volunteer time and resources to their schools and communities.

The Current Chula Vista Educators Board of Directors

SEE JULY 2008 UPDATE

PEG MYERS
Peggie Myers
cvepresident@yahoo.com
President 07-09
State Council 06-09
Full-Release CVE Office 427-1063

Monica Sorrenson
Vice President 07-09
Liberty Elementary School 397-5225

Nancy Potts npotts@cox.net
Treasurer 07-09
Valley Vista Elementary 479-7171 Ext. 5339

Barbara Dunwoodie
Secretary 07-09
State Council 05-08
monagin@cox.net
Hilltop Elementary 422-8323 Ext.3333

JAMES GROTH
James Groth
jgroth@cta.org
State Council 07-10
CTA Board

Allan Insko
PAR Chair 06-09
Sunnyside 479-0571 Ext. 5051

Joyce Abrams
Area Director A 07-08
nautilus@san.rr.com
Chula Vista Hills 482-7066 Ext. 2341
Click HERE to see Ms. Abrams PERB complaint.

Norma Pacheco-Davis
[new member--NOT involved in wrongdoing 2001-2005]
Area Director B 07-08
pachecodavis@yahoo.com
Los Altos 690-5880 Ext. 3848

Penny Martinez
[new member--NOT involved in wrongdoing 2001-2005]
Area Director D 07-08
Valle Lindo 421-5151 Ext. 5254

Andra Johnston
Area Director E 07-08
Salt Creek 397-5494

Executive Director Mary Ellen Berumen
[New executive director--not involved in decisions of former executive director Tim O'Neill]
mberumen@cta.org
427-1063 Ext 205

OPEN
Area Director C 07-08

OPEN
Bargaining Chair 07-09

The teachers of CVESD aren't told the truth about their union, Chula Vista Educators

See all posts about Peg Myers.

You wouldn't know it from the stories in the San Diego Union Tribune over the years, but Chula Vista Elementary School District works closely behind the scenes with the leaders of its teachers union, Chula Vista Educators.

Peggie Myers, CVE president, and her close friend Robin Donlan, have even used the same law firm as CVESD. Not just that, but CVESD paid the law firm on their behalf. The district recently went back to this law firm when it discovered that illegal tactics were necessary to get what it wanted in the Danielle Cozaihr case and other cases.

It should be noted that Chula Vista Educators did not help Danielle Cozaihr, who was awarded $1 million in a recent San Diego Superior Court case. Peggie Myers, Jim Groth and the rest of the CVE board have generally worked to help the district when it is violating the law against teachers.

You might have thought that former CVE president Jim Groth was out of the picture now that he's on the Board of Directors of the California Teachers Association. But, no. He's still on the CVE board of directors.

It should be noted that two teachers on the board of directors had NOTHING to do with the wrongdoing from 2000-2005. I'm hoping that Norma Pacheco-Davis and Penny Martinez will help usher in a new era of honesty and openness for Chula Vista Educators. Perhaps they can bring back Robyn Higginson, who wasn't supportive of CVE's violations of the Labor Code.

It was obvious all along that Lowell Billings didn't believe in site-based management

Chula Vista Elementary School District's Superintendent Lowell Billings apparently watched closely and learned from his predecessor Libia Gil, who promoted a system she called "site-based management." Billings continues to promote the system.

But the system as implemented at CVESD always involved top-down decisionmaking, never democracy at the school site.

It also involved laziness and neglect. So things would often get out of hand at various schools, and then the district office would swoop in and fire people, or, if they were political allies, bring them back to the district office for their own protection.

But now Lowell has a new problem. The school that is trying to make its own decisions is a charter school. They don't seem to think that principal Erik Latoni should make all the decisions.

Once again, Lowell wants to swoop in and take control. He is threatening to to terminate the charter of Feaster Elementary School because the people who run the school actually work at the school. Instead of "site-based decisionmaking," this is now being called "a conflict of interest" by Mr. Billings.

It's not ideas that matter at CVESD, it's words. And the meaning of the words changes whenever the people in charge feel it's necessary.

It's probably worthwhile to note that CVESD recently rehired Daniel Shinoff of Stutz, Artiano Shinoff & Holtz. Apparently the board was impressed with Shinoff's work at MiraCosta College. I notice a striking similarity in the arguments used to attack Feaster Elementary and the arguments used to justify the actions of the majority-bloc of trustees at MiraCosta.

Cheryl Cox, Frank Luzzaro and me

Frank Luzzaro and I have known Chula Vista mayor Cheryl Cox for many years. We all started working for CVESD at about the same time in the seventies.

Then Cheryl became a CVESD board member, and we found out how closely tied she was to developers.

Frank recently filed an ethics complaint against a developer's friend on a city committee.

My only wish is that Frank had taken more of an interest in ethics at CVESD. I guess he didn't want to step on Cheryl Cox's toes when she was playing footsie with his pal Jim Groth, past president of Chula Vista Educators and current CTA director.

Here's the story about the recent complaint:

Ethics complaint filed against Realtor on board

UNION-TRIBUNE
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071217-9999-1m17b2briefs.html
December 17, 2007

CHULA VISTA: Chula Vista residents Frank and Susan Luzzaro have filed a complaint with the city's Ethics Commission against Richard D'Ascoli, a member of the city's Redevelopment Advisory Committee.

The complaint, filed Dec. 3, alleges that D'Ascoli, the director of governmental affairs for the Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors, has used his column in the Realtors' newsletter to criticize Chula Vista “NIMBYs.” The Luzzaros say D'Ascoli isn't objective regarding residents' concerns.

Chula Vista established the Redevelopment Advisory Committee in July 2006 to hold public hearings on urban infill projects.

D'Ascoli said he was confused by the complaint because he thought he was selected to the committee to represent the Realtors' organization, which has more than 1,000 Chula Vista residents as members.

He said that he has requested clarification on his role from the city attorney.

– T.M.

Two codes at Chula Vista's Castle Park Elementary: one for students, another for teachers

Students at Castle Park Elementary in Chula Vista, California are expected to obey the following code:

Castle Park Code Of Chivalry

A Castle Park Knight Will:
Behave in a peaceful and caring manner.
Demonstrate honesty in all Situations.
Respect the rights and property of others.
Take responsibility for his or her actions.

For teachers, the expectations are different. Pamela Smith, Bertha Lopez and the rest of the school board, as well as the teacher "leaders" at Chula Vista Educators/CTA, have cost taxpayers $100,000s in legal fees in their efforts to foster the following code of ethics:

A Castle Park teacher will:

1. Work to get rid of at least one student and one adult each year, preferably Spanish-speaking.
2. Follow instructions of district lawyers to hide the truth.
3. Climb over others to elevate his/her position in the school and the teachers union.
4. Defend himself/herself indignantly if caught violating the law, and insist that it's someone else's fault.